L.A.’s Bitch Comes to N.Y.: Uptown Ladies Look Out!

At a recent press conference in Pasadena, Calif., New York television reporters asked actress Heather Locklear, soon to make her debut on ABC’s Spin City as a campaign manager named Caitlin Moore, what she knew about the Big Apple.

“I don’t have a clue, I just don’t know,” said the towheaded actress. “I have uptown, downtown, east, south, I just don’t know. Oh, God! If you see me lost, help me out.”

Luckily, the 38-year-old performer, who just gave up a seven-year gig on the bitchy L.A. soap Melrose Place , will find herself wandering around one of Manhattan’s toniest neighborhoods: Park Avenue at 61st Street, where she recently signed a one-year lease for about $35,000 per month on a three-bedroom penthouse. Real estate sources familiar with the space, which is located in a condominium built in 1915, describe it as measuring 4,000 square feet, with four and half baths, a library and a working fireplace. Although there are no terraces, the property has open city views and needs no renovations. It was also for sale, for $6.9 million.

Since Ms. Locklear’s decision to vacate the West Coast, her real estate search has focused on the East 50’s and 60’s. In July, she was spotted with a broker on East 64th Street between Park and Madison avenues, where several town houses are currently for sale; she also made inquiries about a three-bedroom penthouse at 150 East 57th Street, according to real estate sources, which was asking a rental fee of more than $25,000 a month.

Instead, Ms. Locklear–who is moving east with husband Richie Sambora, the guitarist for Bon Jovi, and infant daughter Ava Elizabeth–opted for the Park Avenue penthouse, where the owner was seeking $38,000 per month. Real estate sources said the rental contract was effective as of late July.

UPPER WEST SIDE

IAN SCHRAGER’S MAJESTIC MANSION MIGHT BE READY BY THE MILLENNIUM! Hotelier Ian Schrager, who set a Central Park West record in November 1997 with his $9 million purchase of a 14-room apartment in the Majestic, 115 Central Park West, has just sold his old place, a duplex at 15 West 81st Street, for $3.15 million.

Real estate sources said the hotelier has finally accepted an offer for the price he wanted because he expects the extensive renovations on his new home to be completed by the end of the year.

Mr. Schrager bought the 81st Street apartment, a high-floor duplex, for $1.75 million in the fall of 1995. He renovated it shortly thereafter in a modern-looking design scheme that did not jell with the prewar architecture of the rest of the 1930 building. “You [felt] like there was no prewar detail left,” said one broker familiar with the apartment, who described it as “very sleek.” Numbering seven rooms all together, the property has a large living room, dining room, and kitchen with an adjoining maid’s room on the lower floor; the upper story contains three sizable bedrooms with accompanying baths.

Just two years after buying the duplex, Mr. Schrager set his sights 10 blocks south, where he bought two combined apartments at the Majestic, also a 1930 building, for a total of $9 million. The apartment gave him control of the entire 19th floor, with its five bedrooms, six and a half baths, two kitchens, two fireplaces and several servants’ rooms. The 14-room space also boasts a 75-foot-long terrace with views of the park. At the time, agents familiar with the purchase told The New York Times that Mr. Schrager would “probably spend a couple of million dollars” on renovations.

A month after the Majestic deal was finalized, Mr. Schrager put his old apartment on the market for $3.3 million. He then hired architect Omer Fenik and filed for alteration permits with the city’s Buildings Department in February 1998. At the time, the idea was to install new walls, new plumbing and finishes, and central air-conditioning. In October, he switched to architect Rodolfo Arguellas and requested additional permission to remove plumbing fixtures and interior partitions. As recently as Aug. 3, the hotelier applied for permits to erect more partitions and conduct other renovations–a request that Buildings Department officials denied on Aug. 7. Another source familiar with the hotelier’s plans said that Philippe Starck, who designed Mr. Schrager’s Paramount and Royalton hotels, is overseeing the apartment design process.

Mr. Schrager has continued to live in the 81st Street duplex with his wife, Rita Narona Schrager, and two young daughters, making it difficult for brokers interested in viewing the apartment. Meanwhile, he continuously fiddled with the price, dropping it as low as $2.75 million in May 1998, several months before he took the property off the market altogether. In June 1999, the hotelier put the apartment up for sale again, at the final price of $3.15 million.

Sources familiar with Mr. Schrager’s plans said he expects to complete the work on the Majestic apartment by the end of the year, when he wants to move in. For that reason, the finalization of the deal to sell the 81st Street duplex–on which a contract is expected to be signed imminently–will likely be delayed for several months. A spokesman for Mr. Schrager said he was unavailable for comment.

MURRAY HILL

10 Park Avenue

One-bed, one-bath, 800-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $299,000. Selling: $295,000.

Charges: $867; 50 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

GARMENT MAN KEEPS TIES TO EAST 30’S. He was in the garment business. But he had retired to the Virgin Islands, mostly. He and his wife kept a studio at 10 Park Avenue, between 34th and 35th streets, but it was feeling a little small. They discovered this corner unit, with its sunken living room, windowed kitchen, and prewar beamed ceilings, in the same building. A couple in their 30’s, he’s an investment banker, had taken off for Florida themselves eight years ago. After one deal that failed at the eleventh hour, the two couples met. The larger space, 800 square feet with one bedroom and

a bathroom, was elixir enough for the older couple to keep some clothes in the city. Broker: Bellmarc Realty (Bill McCarten).

UPPER EAST SIDE

170 East 87th Street (Gotham)

Three-bed, three-bath, 1,745-square-foot postwar condo.

Asking: $906,000. Selling: $906,000.

Charges: $987. Taxes: $771.

Time on the market: two weeks.

HER VERY OWN BROKEN-DOWN PALACE. After six years of being neighbors in the same Upper East Side building, a mother of two approached broker Marysue

Bailey about finding her a swanky new apartment. The woman wanted to remain in the neighborhood so her kids, ages 10 and 13, could stay in the same schools. She also wanted a few amenities: like a pool, health club and doorman. The three-bedroom apartment at 170 East 87th Street was striking for all the wrong reasons. The prior tenants had ravaged the place, breaking the washing machine and one of the sinks, and uprooting tiles from the kitchen. But the seller promised to fix all that, and for its size–1,745 square feet, which includes three full bathrooms–the apartment was still a good buy at $906,000. Broker: Prudential-M.L.B. Kaye International Realty (Marysue Bailey).

MIDTOWN

60 Sutton Place South

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,350-square-foot postwar co-op.

Asking: $650,000. Selling: $650,000.

Charges: $1,514; 50 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

THE TERRACE TARIFF. The seller of this two-bedroom, two-bath apartment wanted $675,000. But even a terrace overlooking the East River didn’t sway her broker from insisting on pricing it at $650,000. Considering that a couple paid every penny of that, it’s unclear who knew best. Probably the buyers, an accountant and his wife who were living just across Sutton Place in a one-bedroom pied-à-terre , looking for an extra bedroom and a river view. The terrace is big enough for cocktails with friends; the living room, off the foyer, is also a nice size; and the spare bedroom overlooks the building’s gardened courtyard. Broker: Halstead Property Company (Lise Molinari); Douglas Elliman (Norma Hirsch).

100 West 57th Street (Carnegie House)

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,450-square-foot postwar co-op.

Asking: $520,000. Selling: $490,000.

Charges: $1,445; 30 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: six weeks.

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST WALLS. This apartment is about to become the first loft ever on West 57th Street. A couple in their 60’s figures they don’t need walls anymore, so they’re gonna take a wrecking ball to this two-bedroom apartment near Carnegie Hall. Post-renovation, they’ll no longer have any secrets: for instance, that somebody let the price of this apartment go from $465,000, their initial bid, to $490,000. The wall-lovers they’re replacing, a 30-something couple, lived in the apartment since the early 1990’s but they’re moving to Southern California, where they barely have doors. The place will look especially cavernous without the baby grand piano, once owned by Leonard Bernstein, which was the last thing to be moved out. “One of the first things [the seller] said to me,” recalled broker Brett Grabel, “was, ‘The piano’s worth more than the apartment.'” Wait till the new owners get finished with it. Broker: William B. May Company Real Estate (Brett Grabel); Wohlfarth & Associates Inc. (Rick Wohlfarth).

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

33 Willow Street

Three-bed, two-bath, 1,000-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $395,000. Selling: $410,000.

Charges: $656; 60 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

FROM ON THE RIVER TO IN THE RIVER. The owners of this full-floor, brownstone apartment, a couple in their 40’s, decided to bail out of Brooklyn to move onto a houseboat. As it turned out, their timing was perfect for an attorney and her husband living in Cobble Hill. The three-bedroom apartment, situated between Cranberry and Middagh streets not far from the Promenade, occupies the fourth floor in a five-story brownstone and is filled with light. It also boasts a country-style kitchen and a laundry room. Perhaps to save themselves the hassle of lugging furniture up those four flights, the buyers even decided to take some of the sellers’ furniture. You don’t need a lot of sofas and armoires out on the open sea. Broker: Corcoran Group (Loretta Maresco; Nancy Giddins).